Transcript - Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump on His iHeartRadio Show - July 27, 2018 | Factba.se

Sean Hannity

00:00:00 - 00:00:15 (16 sec)

Joining us now is the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Mr. President, congratulations. And on top of that, I think one of the more underreported stories is that we now have a trade deficit that dropped by more than $50 billion.

Donald Trump

00:00:15 - 00:00:39 (24 sec)

Well, thank you very much, Sean. And you're right, that to me is so important. Your phase two of the question, $52 billion drop in trade deficit, that hasn't happened in decades. And it's really something very special, and a lot of that is because of the policies that we're putting in place. And it's going to get better, Sean.

Donald Trump

00:00:39 - 00:00:50 (11 sec)

It's totally sustainable. I look so forward to next quarter. I look forward to watching what happens over the years. It is something very special that's taking place.

Sean Hannity

00:00:50 - 00:01:06 (16 sec)

How is it that trade is so interconnected to all this and a lot of people thought you're going to start a trade war with Europe. Well, that was put to rest pretty much this week. And you said you found a new favorite word, which is reciprocity.

Donald Trump

00:01:06 - 00:01:24 (19 sec)

Well, reciprocal is very important to me because we have countries out there, Sean, and most of your folks know exactly what I'm talking about because they'll watch and they'll see we have countries that charge us a 100% tariff or tax and we charge them nothing for the same product coming into our country.

Donald Trump

00:01:24 - 00:01:50 (26 sec)

We have countries judging us far more than that, close to 300% in certain cases. And yet when I say well we're going to tax them or we're going to be reciprocal and charge them the same 300%, everyone goes crazy and they say, oh, you can't do that, it's not free trade, which is sort of laughable when you think about it. In other words, they can do it but we can't. So those days are over.

Donald Trump

00:01:50 - 00:02:07 (17 sec)

And I think that's had a huge impact even though it's very early. I've only been doing this a little more than a year and a half with some of these, and the policies, really, it takes a while to get them enacted but it's having a tremendous impact. And if we can straighten out trade, which I'll do absolutely and it's already happening, you see what happened with Europe yesterday.

Donald Trump

00:02:07 - 00:02:12 (5 sec)

But as we straighten out trade, we can pick up a lot of points on GDP.

Sean Hannity

00:02:12 - 00:02:18 (7 sec)

To be clear, though, you don't want a trade war. You want free trade, but you want fair trade?

Donald Trump

00:02:18 - 00:02:43 (24 sec)

Right. I want fair trade. I don't want a trade that people think is fair and free, but we're being charged 50%. As an example, China, and I have great respect for President Xi. I think he's a friend of mine. He may not like me so much anymore, but we'll be friends again. But China charges us 25% when we send a car to China to be sold.

Donald Trump

00:02:43 - 00:03:07 (24 sec)

When they send a car to us we charge them essentially nothing. They say 2.5%, but it's not even collected. So they get 25%. We get like nothing, and it doesn't make sense. It's not fair. You can't compete. That's like a baseball game, I give an analogy. That's like you having a big game with a very good team and they score 15 runs in the first inning.

Donald Trump

00:03:07 - 00:03:23 (16 sec)

So the score is 15 to nothing. Now you're going into the second inning. It's not looking good. That's what happens when they charge 25% and we're charging 2.5% and not collecting. Essentially that's what's happening and we can

Sean Hannity

00:03:23 - 00:03:42 (19 sec)

One of my criticisms often, a theme on both radio and TV, is the fact that the media is so corrupt and so one-sided and it's like every day they have a breathless thing, negative thing to say about the president. We're 101 days away from the midterm elections. I'm arguing in my view that it's the most important midterms in our life.

Sean Hannity

00:03:42 - 00:04:03 (21 sec)

But if we go back to 2016, the Gateway Pundit actually picked up some really interesting headlines that if you were to become president, you would lead the economy off the cliff. I'll read you a few of them. CNN Money said Trump promises 4% growth, economists say no way. The L.A. Times said if Trump thinks he can get more than 3% economic growth, he's dreaming.

Sean Hannity

00:04:03 - 00:04:23 (20 sec)

The Wall Street Journal said Trump's 3% growth target looks out of reach. The Hill wrote Trump's growth projections leave economists in disbelief. And you got your Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, Trump's election means we are probably looking at a global recession with no end in sight. And I can keep going.

Sean Hannity

00:04:23 - 00:04:36 (13 sec)

And Barack Obama, we'll never reach 3% growth in a year and said what magic wand does Trump have to revive the economy? Usually the answer is he doesn't have an answer. I guess their predictions were wrong, sir.

Donald Trump

00:04:36 - 00:04:56 (20 sec)

Well, we've had the answers during the debates and I think we were very strong in the debates on what we want to do. And if you look at the predictions, they've all been wrong. I mean, we are far ahead of what anybody thought except me. We can go a lot higher than this. If you look at regulations, nobody talked about regulations.

Donald Trump

00:04:56 - 00:05:20 (24 sec)

Had my opponent won, the Democrats, you would have had an economy that instead of being up close to 40% in the stock market, they would have been down 40% or 50% because the regulations were choking this country. And I'm all for regulations for clean air, clean water. We want to have great environmental control, but they had 10 regulations when you could have used one.

Donald Trump

00:05:20 - 00:05:38 (19 sec)

And as you know, I've been cutting 22 regulations for every new one -- a new regulation that's put in which are very few because we were totally over-regulated. You couldn't do anything. Highways were taking 20 years to get approved. You have a highway, that's really important. It would take from 17 to 20 years to get your approvals.

Donald Trump

00:05:38 - 00:06:00 (22 sec)

By that time the highway system is different, then the roads are being built a different way and you couldn't make changes. Now, this is -- we're doing great. We could do a lot better. The fact is that, if I can cut the trade deficit from $817 billion, think of that, we have a trade deficit with other countries that's trading with other countries $817 billion.

Donald Trump

00:06:00 - 00:06:20 (20 sec)

If I cut it in half, right there, we'll pick up three to four points. So you could add that to the four or five and so it would be an eight or a nine. Now I don't want to say that too much and I didn't want to say it too much during the campaign because I would have been criticized. People wouldn't have believed it. But now they're starting to believe.

Donald Trump

00:06:20 - 00:06:42 (22 sec)

And you're right, you look at a guy like Krugman. He doesn't know a thing. I mean, the predictions were so -- they were so bad. A big factor though, Sean, was regulation. And obviously, a big factor was the taxes. But a lot of this -- really the taxes are going to help in the future. I look so forward to seeing the next quarter because this is so sustainable.

Donald Trump

00:06:42 - 00:06:44 (2 sec)

This is going to go for a long time.

Sean Hannity

00:06:44 - 00:07:05 (21 sec)

We have numbers that are in now and all during the 2016 campaign, I gave statistics out. I did it every day because I wanted people to know what eight years of the Obama economy were. And you know lowest labor participation rate, 13 million more Americans on food stamps, eight million more on poverty. He took on more debt than every other president before him combined.

Sean Hannity

00:07:05 - 00:07:39 (34 sec)

You now have accumulated your track record. We have nearly four million new jobs in the country. We have the largest labor participation rate in history. We have literally nearly four million new jobs created in manufacturing jobs that people thought weren't going to come back. Well, that's nearly 700,000. Then we've got two or three million fewer people on food stamps, record-low unemployment in 14 states for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, and a 65-year low for women in the workplace.

Sean Hannity

00:07:39 - 00:07:49 (10 sec)

That's pretty impressive. And now 4.1% GDP. I think that we can make a comparison that some economic policies work and others do not.

Donald Trump

00:07:49 - 00:08:07 (19 sec)

Well, you're really right. And I've heard those statistics from you for even a long time. And now when you look back, it's hard to believe that we've put up with it and much of it was caused by bad trade deals. People don't want to say much if it was caused by regulation and overtax. I mean, you're overtaxed.

Donald Trump

00:08:07 - 00:08:25 (18 sec)

Think of it in the election coming up in now just a little more than three months. The Democrats want to raise everybody's taxes. They want to give back these massive tax cuts that we got and reforms that are so good for everybody but the tax cuts. So they want to raise people's taxes. They want to open up borders.

Donald Trump

00:08:25 - 00:08:32 (6 sec)

They want to get rid of ice. I mean, the things they're doing are so destructive. We won't have a country. So...

Sean Hannity

00:08:32 - 00:08:42 (10 sec)

They want their crumbs back. They want their crumbs back. They want open borders. They want Obamacare. They want to impeach you and they want to stop all investigations into deep corruption.

Donald Trump

00:08:42 - 00:09:00 (18 sec)

Yes. No, there's a lot of corruption out there but it happens to be on the other side of the ledger, the Democrats. And if you talk about collusion, the collusion is there. There's no question about it, but it's with the Democrats and Russia because all you have to do is look at what they did and how they participated with Russia.

Donald Trump

00:09:00 - 00:09:29 (29 sec)

It's a disgraceful situation. But for the economy, we can go a lot higher and people don't talk. We have $21 trillion in debt. When this really kicks in, we'll start paying off that debt like it's water. We will start paying that debt down. We're $21 trillion, a number that is unthinkable. But that will go down very quickly because the numbers with growth and the kind of growth that we've produced to 4.1% can actually go higher.

Donald Trump

00:09:29 - 00:09:47 (18 sec)

I look forward to seeing next quarter because I think that the 4.1% is just a stepping stone. But will we make good trade deals? Is it going to have a huge impact on GDP growth? And the numbers will be so big that you'll actually start paying down debt in very large chunks. It'll go quickly.

Sean Hannity

00:09:47 - 00:09:59 (12 sec)

Right. The president has graciously agreed to spend more time with us. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll continue on this Friday. 800-941-SEAN is our toll-free telephone number if you want to be a part of the program. [Commercial Break]

Sean Hannity

00:09:59 - 00:10:19 (20 sec)

As we continue with the president of the United States. I was with you in Singapore. I was also in London and in Helsinki. Now one of the promises that Kim Jong-un made to you, and we still have not had rockets fired over Japan, our hostages were released. We're talking about denuclearization. One of his launch facilities has been dismantled.

Sean Hannity

00:10:19 - 00:10:29 (9 sec)

But now the remains of Americans have come home -- are coming home. And we saw that earlier today. But also -- NATO is also paying more money.

Donald Trump

00:10:29 - 00:10:51 (23 sec)

Well, a lot of things have changed since I became president. And when I was with President Obama in the Oval Office, which I guess is something that presidents do, they have a meeting and I had a very interesting meeting. But he did say the biggest single problem that our country has is the problem with North Korea and he was very perplexed and I can understand that and it could have led to war.

Donald Trump

00:10:51 - 00:11:12 (20 sec)

And I did ask, have you spoken to him, and the answer was no. And I said to myself it would be a good thing to speak. We did meet. We had a great meeting, a very, very great meeting. I mean, I think you could have lost 50 million people more. If you think that Seoul is 28 million people, it's right on the border, people say hundreds of thousands.

Donald Trump

00:11:12 - 00:11:33 (21 sec)

We're talking about 50 million, 60 million, 100 million people could have been wiped out and lost. We had a great meeting, historic. And among other things, where the remains are starting to come back, missiles have been stopped. We don't have rockets and missiles shot over Japan. The hostages, we got them back.

Donald Trump

00:11:33 - 00:11:53 (20 sec)

Even before I left, we got them back. Nuclear testing no more, rocket testing no more. So many things have changed. And one thing all of their propaganda material and the propaganda which has been up for years, propaganda, the signs, the music, it's all stopped. It's all been taken down. So many positive things have happened.

Donald Trump

00:11:53 - 00:12:16 (23 sec)

And we have time we had -- there's no rush. I told my people don't rush and we have sanctions on. We haven't taken any sanctions off. And we hope -- I look forward to the time when we do take the sanctions off because when that happens, a lot of good things will have happened on the other side. But -- so we're very proud of that and are very proud of the fact that with NATO, they were taking in less and less money every year.

Donald Trump

00:12:16 - 00:12:38 (22 sec)

But last year, which was my first meeting, they took in $44 billion more because they said you have to pay your bills. We were paying for everybody else. And this year, we raised by at least hundreds of billions of dollars. So we took in $44 billion last year, and all of that goes toward protecting -- most of it toward protecting against Russia.

Donald Trump

00:12:38 - 00:13:09 (31 sec)

And then they say I'm friendly with Russia. Russia is not happy about what I did with NATO. Russia is not happy about all of this tremendous amount of money that now is flowing into these countries who weren't paying their bills. I mean, they were delinquent in many cases and certainly bringing up the pipeline where Germany is paying as you know, Sean, in Germany, nobody brought this up. Nobody even knew about it. But Germany is paying to Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy coming out of that pipeline.

Donald Trump

00:13:09 - 00:13:12 (3 sec)

And I said, wait a minute, we're protecting against Russia...

Sean Hannity

00:13:12 - 00:13:12 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:13:12 - 00:13:18 (6 sec)

We are paying billions of dollars toward Russia. Nobody brought that up but me and I'm very unhappy about it and I told them that.

Sean Hannity

00:13:18 - 00:13:25 (7 sec)

I hope we can eventually because we have more energy resources than anybody in the world. Last question, sir, because I know you got to run.

Donald Trump

00:13:25 - 00:13:29 (4 sec)

Well, that's happening, Sean. That was part of the deal I made with the European Union. They're opening up...

Sean Hannity

00:13:29 - 00:13:32 (3 sec)

That's millions of jobs for Americans in the energy sector. That would be great.

Donald Trump

00:13:32 - 00:13:33 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:13:33 - 00:13:50 (17 sec)

Let me ask the last question because I want to go back to the election in 101 days and I see the agenda just as you described and I've been saying it as well that they want to, a, impeach you. We know they just tell everybody to stop saying it. They want the tax cuts reversed. They want their crumbs back.

Sean Hannity

00:13:50 - 00:14:08 (17 sec)

They want to eliminate ice, open borders, keep Obamacare, stop investigations. I don't think... I don't hear anything that is going to help the American people. But in midterm elections, historically, the party in the White House in power usually loses seats.

Donald Trump

00:14:08 - 00:14:09 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:14:09 - 00:14:26 (17 sec)

And I know to prevent that from happening, you kind of have to buck the trend. There's usually about a 15-seat loss. What do you say to people and this audience that maybe, well, you're not on the ballot that support you but don't particularly like their RINO congressman or senator?

Donald Trump

00:14:26 - 00:14:52 (26 sec)

Well, my endorsements seem to have a lot of weight. If you look at Georgia, the governor of Georgia, he was down five to 10 points and he won 70-30. So he won by 40 points. Many others, I mean, you could look at... to your congressman, you can look at all of these different endorsements. And what I told my people just now, I said to General Kelly, I said to a whole group of people, we have to get a group together.

Donald Trump

00:14:52 - 00:15:16 (23 sec)

Give me the top 25 congress people that are -- could go either way. And I want to go out and campaign for those people, likewise, with the Senate. Because we're going to fix everything once we have the votes. We really don't have, when they say majority. It's 51-49, but it's not really, because you lose a couple and people are sick, people are ill, people can't come to vote.

Donald Trump

00:15:16 - 00:15:35 (19 sec)

So in the Senate, we really don't have a majority at all and it's a very small -- the House, it's a very small majority. So I think we can actually -- because of a couple of things that are happening, very special things are happening for our country. You mentioned North Korea, you mentioned our military is being rebuilt, so many others.

Donald Trump

00:15:35 - 00:15:56 (21 sec)

But look at the economy. The economy may be the strongest it's ever been in the history of our country. Now the famous quote, it's the economy, stupid. Well, if it's the economy, then we should do very well. I just don't know any reason why we shouldn't do well. We're doing well with our military, we knocked out ISIS, we've done so well in so many.

Donald Trump

00:15:56 - 00:16:13 (18 sec)

And ISIS would have never been knocked out. Now you've got to keep on it. I don't want to be saying we knocked it out. You got to keep on it, but we have decimated ISIS. So many things have taken place, but the economy is the strongest ever and I think that's going to have a very positive impact. And I am going to work very hard.

Donald Trump

00:16:13 - 00:16:35 (21 sec)

I'll go six or seven days a week when we're 60 days out, and I will be campaigning for all of these great people that do have a difficult race. And we think we're going to bring them over the line. So I really believe that because we're doing so well as a country and so well with the economy, I think we're going to be surprising a lot of people.

Sean Hannity

00:16:35 - 00:16:43 (9 sec)

All right. Mr. President, I know you're busy. Thank you for taking the time. Congratulations, 4.1% GDP growth. Thank you, sir, for being with us. And hopefully we'll talk soon. Thank you.

Donald Trump

00:16:43 - 00:16:46 (2 sec)

Thank you very much, Sean. Thank you.